THE AVERAGE price of a boxed game loses almost half its original price after three months. The average price drops by almost a quarter – 23.5 per cent – after just 30 days on sale. After 60 days it’s fallen by 30.8 per cent overall, and after 90 days a whopping 39 per cent.

The cost of boxed games is a one of the hottest ongoing debates in the industry – and it doesn’t look like it’ll be going away anytime soon. It’s tangible proof of something we already knew – today games are never sold at their RRP. £39.99 is the consumer’s generally accepted

39%

The percentage of value that the average boxed game loses after three months on sale

price of a new Xbox 360 or PS3 game, as opposed to the standard £49.99 RRP. To make matters worse, games prices have been known to fall quite heavily just months – even weeks – after their release. But although this fact is well known, there are still unanswered questions. When do games drop in price? Exactly how much did they fall by? And why? Obviously it differs greatly for each release, but the table above should give you a good answer to some of those questions.

With the help of price comparison site Idealo, we’ve listed some of the

15%

The increase in Skyrim’s average price between the 30th and 60th day of going on sale

£14.61

The average price of Rageafter three months, making it the heaviest depreciating game in the above table

80.5%

Xbox 360 games hold their value the most, dropping to this percentage of their original average price after one month

“ 17.99

It’s common knowledge the average price of a boxed game falls after a month or so on sale, but by how much? With the help of price comparison site Idealo, Dominic Sacco finds out

PS3

34.78 34.85

21.99 27.85 34.98 32.79 19.99

33.89 27.89 22.99 23.95 24.99 21.85

34.89 34.37 23.99 18.89 23.99 32.97 37.49

29.99 24.99 19.98 33.84 32.84 29.85 28.99

23.89 22.89 22.85 19.99 31.98

29.98

34.98 34.85 36.77

27.76 24.95

29.97 24.85 37.89 34.95 28.95 31.49 31.99

37.98 32.91

33.95 29.47 17.99 21.99

21.99

32.85 22.89 15.99 29.75 29.95

17.98

30.95 36.85

14.95 27.95 24.98

45.95 39.96 46.89 46.79 44.95 39.96 16.85

19.99 16.99 22.49 27.99

36.89 27.99 29.86 33.89 22.98 22.98

The more hyped the game and the better its reviews, the longer the price has remained near its release cost.

Christoph Hitchen, Idealo

top-selling 25 boxed games released during the last six months, along with a mix of other titles for comparison, such as Maddenand Rayman. We’ve looked at how their average day one UK price has changed after 30, 60 and 90 days on Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii, then worked out the average fall in price across all three formats. Over 100 prices were analysed from more than 50 different retailers. Note that this doesn’t take into account each game’s RRP. If you look at a title like FIFA 12which had an RRP of £54.99 on 360 and PS3, you’ll see that this game was actually